19 March 2011

Memento Review (contains spoilers)

First I want to start with a message to Christopher Nolan, can you make one bad movie to prove you're human, Memento is the fourth film of yours to go into my top 50 favorite films list (will post that soon), you are the human equivalent of Pixar, you can never make a bad movie. That said, let me get into my review of Memento.
The premise of the film is incredible to begin with, a man trying to find his wife's killer but is hindered by his short term memory loss. That premise alone deserves people watching this film, thankfully the script by Christopher Nolan does the film justice, the way that the characters interact with each other, the conversations people have and the voiceovers by Guy Pearce are all incredible. Speaking of Guy Pearce he does a great job playing a Leonard, selling moods the character is in just through his face with confusion being the best element used by his face due to the short term memory loss. Joe Pantoliano also does a great job as Teddy with his voice changes showing a character that you cannot fully trust while Carrie Anne-Moss does a good job as Natalie with her face presenting straight up manipulation of Leonard. But by a mile the best thing about the film is the way it was shot, the reverse chronology makes for a really effective framing device and the way that it is utilized makes sense for the character of Leonard, seeing how things really played out how he would remember them, a bit at a time before going back to the Sammy Jankis storyline, which is also handled really well. The cinematography by Wally Pfister and the editing by Dody Dorn are stars in the film themselves with the final scene in the barn fully encompassing how great these aspects are. This is a complex film and you may not get how it all works first time round, even I don't fully understand it but take my advice, Memento is a great film and you should watch it whenever you can.
My Rating: 5/5

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